


United We Stand

by juhaal



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Awesome Bulma Briefs, BAMF Vegeta, F/M, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-24 12:50:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14355876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juhaal/pseuds/juhaal
Summary: Once upon a time, three great races lived in harmony, each one inside your territories and growing strong with their own characteristics. The Lizards, the Saiyans and the Humans.The three races lived in harmony for years and years… Until they didn’t.In which in an Alternate Universe, on a world of fantasy, Vegeta and Bulma struggle through war to save their world from a commom terryfing enemy - while discovering that, sometimes, you have to take a leap of faith for someone other than yourself to survive.





	1. Once Upon a Time

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my first language, so I'm terribly sorry for any mistakes.  
> I intend to write 7 or 8 chapters to this one, so lets see how this goes. This one is a prologue <3 
> 
> Hope you like it!
> 
> (I'm well aware that I should be updating my Lucifer work, but I'm having some college overbearing workload and this plot bunny wouldn't leave me alone, so I'm trying to navigate through all of it. Soon I will update, promise!)

**Once Upon a Time**

_Once upon a time, three great races lived in harmony, each one inside their territories and growing strong with their own characteristics._

_The Lizards lived on the driest lands, within the canyons and deserts with little supplies available. Their territory was the largest, the biggest, and with the capacity of surviving under the direst of the situations, their strength resided on their massive numbers and strategical society organization. They had through time adapted themselves to their surroundings, growing in numbers on an exponential rate without the other races noticing._

_The Saiyans lived on the mountains up the north, the high altitudes separating them from the other races. Their society was made of warriors, and even if they were the race with lower numbers, their sheer physical strength compensated easily. They were descendants of a prideful lineage of great apes, true Gods in their old culture, and raged war to anyone that dared to defy their power. On the last centuries they lived in relative peace, relishing on their own brutal games to keep their training on great levels and to select those with the stronger genes.  They thrived through mining, being the biggest producers of minerals on the planet._

_The Humans lived on small colonies around the lowlands. Their society had variable levels of development and different cultures, but their goal was the same: to survive. They didn’t have the Lizard’s resilience, neither the Saiyans strength; but they worked together to keep humanity protected and ready for the worst. They had already raged war between themselves through history, they knew the art of war and they knew it was inevitable that the other races would want their resources one day. They owned most of water sources and their lands possessed the most fertile grounds. So, their strength became the technology development of weapons – fatal armament unknown to anyone that wasn’t human._

_Those three races lived in tense balance through centuries. However, it was getting nearer and nearer to the moment that this equilibrium would find its end._

_The trade market kept favoring the Saiyans and Humans, resulting on the Lizards becoming restless, hungry for humanity large production of food and greed for the Saiyans mining, a resource that enabled the creation of so many weapons. The Lizards wanted more._

_The three races lived in harmony for years and years… Until they didn’t._

 

 

The fire and smoke rose to the skies, darkening the clouds above the mountains up the north.

A blue haired woman looked with the most beautiful blue eyes through the distance, biting her lower lip with worry. She had taken a ride with her motorbike through the lands near Northern City to relax a little bit. But now, even being so far away from the Saiyan’s territory, their destruction could be seen so clearly...

That she knew that the humans would be next.

Following the riverside, she started her bike and sped up back to her home, the one she would protect with her own life if necessary.


	2. He Who Awakens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of cursing, geez. Sorry for the language, guys! (Vegeta is so rude sometimes, seriously U_U)
> 
> Hope you guys like this chapter! Next one, we will have more of Bulma <3

**He Who Awakens**

Everything hurt. Every single limb felt too heavy for him to move, and the water around him felt colder than the waterfalls from his home – even if it should have been impossible. So, was the water cold, or his body that was losing too much heat?

He opened his eyes slowly, feeling his head explode with excruciating pain when the sun light hit his retinas. Breathing was getting more and more difficult, and he just didn’t know how he was capable of floating through the river’s current without drowning himself. He was weakened, hurt and powerless in this state, how he still had energy to keep himself above the water level amazed even himself. If his Father had seen all that happened the last hours, he would have been proud.

Another type of pain hit his chest, remembering him that his Father would never feel a thing again.

Then, he groaned weakly when his advanced hearing captured undoubtedly the noise he knew to be an incoming water fall. He braced himself, holding barely to his conscious thoughts and not feeling his body whole. Preparing himself to what was coming, even if everything hurt _so much_ …

But he couldn’t die, he refused to die.

So, he wouldn’t.

 

 

Everything felt surreal. He could hear voices and beeping noises, he could sometimes make out the figures of people surrounding him and talking to him, but as soon as he felt like he was up from the cotton pool he was immersed in, he was back in the darkness with no thought filling his mind.

He was hurting, hurting, hurting…

He remembered vaguely of a big hole on his chest, of smaller ones all around his body… The vague memories of falling and falling and falling, hitting the surface like he was colliding with one of those mineral rocks from his home, and finally submerging in ice and not being able to breath at all.

The darkness surrounded him, kept him under. His bones were rejoining where they had been broken, and he could feel every second of it. There was this sting on his back, at the base of his spine, that wouldn’t go away, and he felt like there was a part of him missing. Distantly he could hear his own groans and screams of pain.

His wrist was stinging, and he felt liquid being driven into his veins and burning him from inside out – and the pain wouldn’t go away, never going away.

Then, ever so slowly everything stopped. He didn’t know for how long, but everything was gone, and his head felt better. Even his chest felt full again, his lungs free from water or blood or whatever had been denying him oxygen.

The sensations were returning one by one, the temperature of the ambient so warm that just by that he knew he wasn’t home. And then, when his consciousness was returning to the surface, he felt finally like a living thing.

He opened his eyes slowly, readapting himself to the white light above his head, readjusting his senses to the comfortable mattress he was laying on and to the light air and pressure this altitude allowed him to feel. It was so easy to know that he was on the lowlands.

Slowly, he took a look around himself, noticing the plain white room he was stationed within. An infirmary, of course.

He sat, grunting with the residual pain on his chest, putting a hand over the area he remembered being transfixed with pure power. Looking at the hand in question, he noticed the venous access on his wrist and the crystalline liquid flowing to his veins. He ripped it off without regret, grimacing from the burning sensation that he got as reward. Weakly, he throwed his legs to the side of the bed, and slowly he put his feet on the ground. Getting up was harder than he remembered it to be, but he achieved it.

Step by step he got nearer the door of the room, the only way out of the place. And then, distractedly, he took a single look to the mirror on the wall beside the wooden door.

He froze. His dark eyes zeroed on the _fucking metal leash_ he had on his neck. It took two whole seconds for his mind to comprehend this new turn of events, and as soon as it did, he rose both of his hands furiously and pulled the damn thing off, expecting to rip it apart without difficulty with his sheer strength alone.

The collar didn’t even move.

“What?” He rasped, unbelievingly, pulling it again. Without success, he tried to fry the thing off with a blast of energy – only to finally notice that he couldn’t use his energy at all.

Starting to become frantic, he opened the door and got out of the little room, falling on a long and endless corridor with so many doors and not one single window. He sniffed the air, trying to determine which direction he should go, and decided to run to his left.

For some reason his balance seemed off, but he kept running. His breathing got easily labored, but he kept his pace, pushing on while trying to make as little noise as possible. He didn’t know where he was and being on a _leash_ didn’t help him to calm down. Someone had subdued him, someone had taken his energy control out of his hands.

And then, when his equilibrium finally failed him, he fell with his face to the ground and his mind caught up to the reason of it.

His tail was _gone_!

“Fuck…” He groaned, feeling like shit. Getting wobbly up, firming his body on the wall, he resumed his frantic race. And then, his hearing started to get tidbits of information, of voices talking calmly a few doors ahead of him.

“… Goku went to investigate. It has been a few days since the attack and we only found that one. There must be other survivors.” A feminine voice commented, with a worried and pensive tone.

“If they got the Saiyans down like this, what chance do we have?” A male voice murmured, and the sound of flesh being slapped on carried to the place he was hiding, beside the open door of the balcony the pair was in.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Yamcha. One, we have Goku with us, and two, we have my incredible genius mind too. Piece of cake, really.” The female added, her voice filled with pride and self-confidence.

He analyzed his options. These two knew what had happened to his people, and for whatever reason they had taken him here and treated his wounds.

Still, he didn’t feel grateful to them. The reminder of how they subdued him while feeling the metal collar on his neck and the absence of his tail, the greatest pride of a Saiyan… They had saved him, yes, but they turned him into a disgrace.

Besides, the feelings of hatred, betrayal and frustration kept overpowering his more candid emotions, and the desire to fight the bastards that had attacked the Saiyan Kingdom kept growing stronger and stronger.

“Look, I have a few more ideas. Frieza’s army won’t know what hit them, I assure you.” The woman completed absently, like it was no big deal.

And that name, that _fucking_ _Lizard’s name_ made him snap. All the self-control he had until now evaporated in one single second, and on the next moment he was running through the corridor with renewed gusto, his body fueled with adrenalin and hate, and the shouts of surprise and agitation behind him making him focus even more on a way out.

The bloody place was a labyrinth, and somehow the metal collar was taking his strength and nulling it. Still, his brain was focused on getting away and all his senses and instincts were tuned to his success.

He had to save the remaining of his people. He had to find his soldiers, he had to reunite his warriors, save the females that were taken as prisoners of war… He had to reconstruct his Kingdom and act like the damn king he was now.

The thought of his Father’s dead eyes haunted him and ignited his fire even more.

“Wait!” The same woman from before shouted from behind him, but he could only feel the rush of the wind and the growl on his throat. He wanted Frieza _dead_!

And then the _fucking leash_ started to radiate heat and in seconds his body was being electrocuted with enough violence to send him to the ground.

“You gave me no other choice, wild man.” The female said, approaching him. With his face pressed to the ground, his teeth tittering with the shock waves still cursing through his body, he could only watch as combat boots approached him without fear. “I didn’t want to use this, but really, I can’t afford to let you run out of here and get yourself killed.”

He growled, furious. With as much effort as he could muster, he raised his eyes slowly, glaring at the bluest eyes he had ever seen in his life.

The female human sighed while looking at him with exasperation. The tiny control on her hand being clearly the responsible for his actual state.

“Damn Bulma, remember me to never accept any necklace from you.” The man, _Yamcha_ , as she had called him, appeared beside her with a grimace on his face.

“I don’t need any of those to control you, silly.” Bulma grinned, full of mirth. “Now, wild guy, will you act civil if I turn off this thing?” She asked to the man still writhing on the ground.

And he could only stare and growl to the damn woman.

“Maybe he can’t talk our language? How do Saiyan talk to each other?” Yamcha asked, receiving a furious and loud growl as answer.

“He seems to understand us just fine.” Bulma commented, gaining his attention back. She sighed again, and with a tiny and unnoticeable click, she turned off the shock waves.

His body slackened to the ground, hurting, burning, tired and defeated. The strength he had recovered that permitted his escape attempt was gone, and all he seemed capable of doing was tremble undignifiedly. He closed his eyes, laying on his back and throwing his head back despairingly.

No wonder his people was almost eradicated.

Their king was useless, weak. A failure.

The next moment, he was unconscious again.

 

 

The next time he woke up, he didn’t feel like running again. With the damn collar on, he couldn’t be of any use to his people, and he didn’t know what that damn woman was planning to do with him. So he sat on the same bed he had awaken the first time, and with his hands on his face he thought about those last moments at the boundaries of his Kingdom.

_“Get away from here, Nappa!” He screamed with authority, growling dangerously while blasting every nasty creature that dared to attack the last of his army, of his race._

_“I won’t leave you, my Prince!” The bald one, the one he had been screaming at, was already weakened from all the fighting and blood lost but kept firing weak blasts of energy. The idiot._

_“It’s an order, soldier!” He, the one stronger than any other Saiyan on the battlefield, the Royal Saiyan Prince, growled back not giving any chance of rebuttal. His dark chocolate eyes stared intensely at his most loyal General, his hair wildly up in every possible direction flowed with the wind of the battles and his own energy. His power created waves around himself, and his strength was keeping that massive Lizard army back for the needed time to save at least some of his subordinates – his comrades. “Gather everyone you can. Save every Saiyan you find it possible to save. And for our pride and vengeance, wait for the call of your Prince!”_

_His order was soon followed by his war cry, his body powering up to should-be-impossible levels. He didn’t know what himself was planning, but the hope he wanted to give his people was more important than creating elaborate plans at that moment._

_“Don’t you dare die!” Nappa growled, knowing that above all the noises of destruction and of the great waves of power, he would have heard anyway._

“Hey, wild guy!” He jumped out of his memories with a start, frowning at the woman from before. How she had entered the room without him noticing only made him more frantic to get the damn collar off. “Nice to see you awake. We didn’t have the chance to introduce ourselves.” She commented nicely, putting both hands on her waist and looking warmly at him. “I’m Bulma Briefs, Ministry of Technology of the Human Union.”

He rose to his feet, staring hard at her while crossing his arms. “Good for you.” He commented, _so not in the mood_ for niceties. Besides, he really didn’t feel very trusting to tell this people who he was.  

Bulma huffed with irritation. “Such a rude man.” She complained, throwing her blue hair behind her shoulders with a flick of her head and taking the few steps that were missing to be face to face with the mysterious Saiyan. “I know you are a Saiyan. I found you almost dead on the riverside of Cerulean River. You had a hanging tail, barely holding itself to your spine, and so many battle wounds that I was really surprised to find you still breathing.” She continued, sober and not one little bit afraid of him. “I created this collar on your neck especially to your race, to keep you at bay if one day you chose to attack us.” She gloated. He kept glaring. “So, if you want me to take it off, you better collaborate with us, understand?”

He neared his face to hers, feeling her heat getting near and near, and with a dangerous sneer he answered, “ _Not fucking likely_.”

She didn’t back off, she didn’t fear him. Her scent didn’t change.

He didn’t want to admit that he was surprised.

“Suit yourself.” She shrugged, grinning. “It’s not me that are collared like an animal, anyway.”

He was so surprised with the _audacity_ that when he noticed, she had already left the room, leaving the door wide open with the knowledge that _she had the control_.

Infuriating woman!

 

 

She had left clothes. Human rags, but clothes nonetheless. And he wore it, not comfortable with the white shorts he had been wearing until that moment. The dark jeans and pink shirt made him sneer, frustrated. The Prince- no, the King of the Saiyans was wearing something so undignified, this couldn’t be happening at all!

But it was better than nothing.

Then he got out of the damn room again, walking aimlessly through the corridor and trying to coordinate himself with his senses. He tugged mindlessly on the metal collar, frowning with the cold material against his throat. It felt suffocating.

“… no one, Bulma. It’s all destroyed. Frieza’s army is almost finishing on picking what they can get on the surface while they prepare themselves to start the mining.” He heard a different male voice from before coming from more doors ahead from the balcony he had eavesdropped earlier.

“Probably, if there are any survivors they are being held hostages or as slaves… How we didn’t see it coming?” She asked lowly, sounding distraught. “Those massive numbers shouldn’t had been able to conceal themselves so well. My droids didn’t detect so many Lizards on their lands.”

“Yeah, don’t I know that.” The man commented. “Hey, I heard you found a Saiyan almost dead few days back and brought him here!” He continued, the man’s innocent and cheerful voice reaching him without effort. His silent steps kept approaching the pair at the end of the corridor.

“Strays are my thing, apparently.” She deadpanned, receiving a laugh from the other one. “He is suspicious of everything and everyone, and he tried to run away first thing after waking up. Maybe he really has a death wish or something.”

“Bulma!” The other chastised. “I may not have grown up with the Saiyans, but even I am feeling a bit put out with what happened to them.” The man whined, sounding pained.

That picked his curiosity, and without indecision he entered the room they were, his eyes searching for the male and widening with recognition.

“Oh, hey there!” The man, an almost perfect copy of Bardock, his late Father’s counselor, cheered when he saw him entering the room. That got the attention of Bulma, that looked back and grinned.

“Look who is finally up and about. At least I hope you will not pass out… _again_!” She taunted, receiving an irritated glare while he crossed his arms.

“You.” He called to the man in front of Bulma, ignoring the woman’s taunt. “Are you related to Bardock?”

“He knows how to speak full sentences!” Bulma snickered, liking how his eyebrow twitched and a vein on his forehead pulsed stronger. “Except he is not very articulate, but, we can’t have everything, right?” Her companion snorted.  

“Yeah, he was my Dad.” The man answered, scratching the back of his head and intervening before another discussion began again. He was just like Bardock - almost like seeing a ghost; his black hair pointing to every direction, his dark eyes and physical structure were so similar; however, the man’s antics and the lack of a scar on his cheek made their differences pretty clear.

“You are Raditz’s younger brother, the one who married a human woman and deserted our people.” He acknowledged, staring intently the man with calculating eyes. “Kakarott.” He remembered the name. And everything he said didn’t affect any bit the other Saiyan.

“Oh well, you can call me Goku, actually. Things didn’t happen exactly on that order, but the results were really the same.” Goku shrugged, smiling genuinely. “Hey, now that I’m thinking about it, you actually seem familiar to me…” He narrowed his eyes.

“Woman.” He interrupted Goku, not giving him the chance to continue his thought process. Bulma raised one of her eyebrows.

“It’s _Bulma._ ” She corrected, ignoring with success the deathly glare directed at her.

“ _Woman_.” He repeated rebelliously, staring at her with a deep frown. “What do you want from me? Why am I still here?” The metal collar was a constant reminder of his imprisonment, and in all his life he never felt so trapped like he was feeling carrying that thing around. Even the ambush and surprise attack on the mountains didn’t cornered him so much.

“I’ll be honest with you.” She sobered, approaching him slowly. He tensed, eyeing her with renewed distrust. He sure could fight even without his enhanced strength and power, but he didn’t want to use his energy after just having recovered it. “No one could have predicted Frieza’s attack on your people. The tense diplomatic relations between all three races were a common thing for _centuries_. However, now that he achieved to destroy a powerful kingdom such as the one you were part of, humanity will be the next target. I am _sure of it_.” She was _too bloody near_. They faced each other unwaveringly, he a bit taller than her. “So, if you cooperate, maybe we can stop the Lizards.” She concluded, crossing her arms and softly touching his own during her act.  

He didn’t want to admit, but the woman was brave. His heart was beating strongly with her proximity, and her scent – something between refreshing and spicy – was starting to confuse his own body responses.

It was simply unacceptable!

“I don’t think your people can actually help.” He responded, and Bulma frowned. “The strongest Saiyan warriors were present at the moment of the attack, and Frieza’s army sheer numbers crushed them. Absolutely crushed them.” Admitting that aloud gave him a bitter taste on his mouth, and every word was forced through his closed teeth. His pride had been beaten non-stop since the attack. Telling the bitter truth couldn’t do any worse. “What _humans_ can actually do?”

“We can win.” She answered with defiance, raising her chin. “You have no idea what we are capable of.”

Somehow, the air between the two became hotter and thicker. The intensity and proximity between them was making the air heavy. Even if he didn’t want to, his eyes shone with some approval; while hers stared daring him to contest her words.

As Prince, even the female Saiyans had kept some distance when speaking to him. Even if they were warriors too, strong, great fighters, they walked on eggshells around him, respecting his space more than any other male on the Kingdom – besides his Father, obviously. But this _human_ didn’t. For God’s sake, she had confronted him one hundred percent of the times they had been in the presence of one another, even if it had been only a few situations. She had put him on his knees and with his face pressed to the ground, contained his power effortlessly with an _invention_ , and now was _defying_ him to his face without a single care in the world.

He was so screwed, and his people was in such a bad place – and still, his body hummed with adrenalin with this tiny human in front of him, _challenging_ all the bloody time.  His thirst for power and for revenge was too intense, and yet, somehow, this woman made a part of his soul wake up with interest, a kind of interest that didn’t have anything to do with the Saiyans dire situation.

What. The. Hell.

“Let’s see, then.” He grinned wickedly, approaching his face to hers and relishing her reaction – a deep intake of breath and the widening of her blue eyes. “I’m looking forward to see how you silly little things are going to win this war.” He added sarcastically.

And that got an explosive snarl of irritation from her and the reddening of her cheeks. Without answering his taunt, she turned her back to him and walked to Goku. “You Saiyans, really!” Bulma complained hotly to the other man, whom flinched when she shoved him strongly out of her way before going to the other door and getting out of the room.  

After a few minutes, Goku looked at him with a cheeky grin, making him remember that the other had seen it all. Even if it hadn’t been anything of importance, even if he didn’t give a damn about what Kakarott could be thinking - his owns cheeks reddened too. And that, apparently, was proof enough for Goku, that smiled knowingly.

_Damn him_ for doing that.

“Man, this is going to be fun!” Goku laughed, soon following Bulma through the same door.  

He couldn’t disagree more.


End file.
